Journal Entry #3 - Intervale Center

Date – 02/25/24
Start time – 11:00 am
End time – 12:00 pm
Location – Intervale Center, 180 Intervale Rd, Burlington, VT 05401
Weather (temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation) – About 40 degrees, low/no wind speed, cloudy
Habitat(s) – Deciduous Forest along a river

For this journal, I took the opportunity to do a guided bird walk at the Intervale Center here in Burlington. This was really helpful as I had an expert with me to ensure I was identifying the birds correctly. Unfortunately, we didn’t see very many birds during this 1 hour long guided tour. In total, I saw 3 White-breasted Nuthatches, 3 Black-capped Chickadees, and 1 Tufted Titmouse.
As we began our walk, we quickly heard the Nuthatches calling to each other from the trees. From what we could tell there were at least 3 individuals calling back and forth to each other. Nuthatches have a very distinct call so it was easy to tell. I guess that they could have been communicated our presence to each other as they were being quite loud. They could have also been communicating the locations of food as it seemed that one of the individuals might have been eating some seeds inside of a bush.
We also saw the Tufted Titmouse and a group of Black-capped Chickadees closer inland along the path. The plumage of the Tufted Titmouse is a soft gray body with a rusty color on the flanks with more feathers on the head, while the Black-capped Chickadee has a black head with white cheeks and underparts. Both blend in with their habitats, but the Tufted Titmouse's colors may offer better camouflage in dense foliage during the spring/summer. Additionally, the Black-capped Chickadee's colors could aid in species recognition and communication within its social groups, whereas the Tufted Titmouse's plumage looks like it could provide better insulation and protection against environmental elements.
The three Chickadees were flying quickly in and out of the trees presumably to forage for food or maybe they were just scared of us as they were quite close to the path. This seems pretty normal for these birds. I assume that most of their day in the winter is spent foraging or running from predators as long as it's somewhat warm out. During the night, we learned that they don’t move much and can enter a hypothermic state. These are very active birds so I assume that by not moving during the night they can expend more energy during the day.
Our birding guide tried some phishing while we were walking back from our walk. This ended up scaring away all of the birds in the area rather than luring them in. My guess about phishing is that it mimics the sounds of angry small birds, which could lure more in to help in the fight or scare them away from potential danger.

Posted on March 7, 2024 03:06 AM by lammieli